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The 2009 legislative session was a mixed bag for environmental concerns. Oregon's leaders handed down some limits, both wanted and unwanted.

With Oregon's Legislature drawing to a close, Oregon environmental groups gained ground on some of their remaining top priorities over the weekend, including bills designed to attack invasive species, limit coal power and provide loans for energy efficiency improvements in homes and small businesses.

But the environmental lobby lost ground on other issues, as the Legislature passed a bill restricting tax credits for wind farms, advanced a bill that would allow old biomass plants to be counted toward the state's renewable power standard and appeared to kill a bill that would have boosted water planning through a $100 charge on water rights holders.